Illegal detention of pregnant woman: HC orders ₹1L compensation to victim, expresses concern over police action
The Allahabad High Court condemned police actions in a missing woman case, ordered ₹1 lakh compensation, and directed her release to her husband.
Hearing a habeas corpus petition late on Friday evening, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court not only condemned the actions of a sub-inspector of the Uttar Pradesh police, who is investigating a missing woman’s case, but also instructed the state authorities to give ₹1 lakh compensation to the victim, a pregnant woman, and take action against the police officer.
Directing the police to hand over the woman to her husband, the court listed the case for next hearing on December 11. During the hearing, the victim was present in court.
Earlier, after approval from the Chief Justice of the Allahabad high court, the case was listed for hearing in the court of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi late on Friday evening.
A division bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi observed: “ The manner in which police duties were carried out was far from the process of law and amounts to abuse of authority.”
“We find it a fit case for imposing an exemplary cost, which in our view, cannot be quantified at less than ₹1,00,000 against the State Authorities to be paid to the victim, as compensation,” the court said.
The court also directed to pay the compensation in the next 10 days from today (Friday). Expressing concern over the police action, the court said the victim, being in an advanced stage of pregnancy and accompanied by her two-year-old child, should never have been subjected to police custody under such circumstances.
The court also directed the state government to issue necessary guidelines to investigating officers for dealing with such cases relating to women. “An affidavit of compliance of this order shall be filed before this court within a period of 10 days from today,” said the court.
“We find it a fit case to be taken note by the Director General of Police and necessary proceedings being drawn and steps thereof as well as the conclusion be apprised to the court,” it said.
The woman had gone missing in August 2021 while on her way to take an exam in Agra. Her family lodged an FIR of alleged kidnapping. But there was no progress in the investigation for over three years.
“Investigating officer (IO) SI Anurag Kumar of Agra Police reached the victim’s house in Gomti Nagar Extension on Friday (November 29). He took the eight-month-old pregnant woman to the Chinhat police station, along with her two-year-old son, on the pretext of recording her statement,” said advocate Raghvendra P Singh, who represented the victim in court.
When the victim was taken to the police station, her husband was not home and her mother-in-law was present. The victim’s husband contacted Raghvendra P Singh over the phone.
After leaving her home in Agra on August 14, 2021, the woman reached Lucknow with Brijendra Pratap Singh and married him on August 15, 2021 in accordance with Arya Samaj rituals, Raghvendra P Singh said. A court marriage followed on August 19, 2021, he added. The couple resides in Gomti Nagar Extension in the state capital.
Raghvendra P Singh filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of the couple on Friday, requesting an urgent hearing of the case.
“The registrar of the Lucknow bench of the high court took permission from the office of the Chief Justice, Allahabad high court, by sending an email. Thereafter, the case was listed for hearing on Friday evening. The hearing continued till around 9pm,” the lawyer said.
“The court observed that the IO had neither brought the case diary nor had he checked the victim’s age before detaining her and no woman constable was accompanying her,” Raghvendra P Singh added.
During the hearing, the lawyer alleged that the woman was detained at the police station for six hours.
A writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.
